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Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Research Faster, Make More Money: How to Find Facts Fast

Hi, readers...I apologize for not getting a post up yesterday. I'm in the midst of updating Six-Figure Freelancing and am finishing another book for brand-new freelancers, and will announce them soon! In the meantime, the topic of today's post is research--and how to spend less time doing it:

I
used to write for a magazine that was known for making some eye-catching claims
in its articles. My editor assigned a piece with a planned cover line claiming,
“Boost your Metabolism by 200% or More
with our Fat-Blasting Diet!” When she assigned the piece, she explained
that the piece would be based on a new study, which had found that eating hot
peppers, which contain capsaicin, could boost your metabolism.

Sounded
good—until I actually read the study. First, it was conducted over just a few
weeks. Second, it included a small number of subjects who were force-fed huge
amounts of hot peppers—far more than people would eat in the course of a month,
let alone a meal. And third, the subjects of the study were rats. As far as I’m concerned this study
didn’t prove anything--except that it
sucks to be a rat.

When you read lines like “Studies say…,” “According to
recent research…,” or “Statistics suggest…,” that research comes from
somewhere. As a freelancer, you have to research article topics and report on
that research. It helps to know how to find the info you need—and how to make
sense of it--as quickly as possible.

Get the Big
Picture

If I’m covering a subject new to me, my first stop is
often Wikipedia.com. Don’t laugh! Last year I was assigned a piece on
interventional radiology, or IR. A quick stop at Wikipedia.com described that
IR is “A subspecialty
of radiology in which minimally invasive procedures are performed using image
guidance” like angiograms. Guess what? I actually knew what IR was—I just
didn’t know that’s what it was called. A little more background reading and I
was reading to start my in-depth reporting.

Find the Source, Find the Fact—and Stat

Often simply finding the right experts is all I need
to locate the facts or statistics I’m looking for. One of my favorite sources is
Help a Reporter Out,
a/k/a “HARO.” You send an email request detailing what you’re looking for, and HARO
sends it to thousands of subscribers. This is a great way to locate people who
are otherwise hard to buttonhole (say someone who’s been in three traffic
accidents in the last year or a researchers working on an as-of-yet unpublished
study).

Profnet offers a similar service for freelancers. You can search
an extensive database of experts or submit a query specifying what you're
looking for ("a master gardener with experience in English roses”) that's
sent to PR agencies, universities, hospitals, and experts.

In addition to ProfNet and Haro, to locate sources, look
for relevant associations. In addition to Google, check out the three-volume Encyclopedia of Associations, which will
be found on reserve at your local library; it contains 20,000 U.S.-based
organizations that cover everything from medicine to gardening to hobbies to
sports to charity groups.

Then
contact the association, ask for the media affairs or public relations
department, and explain what you’re looking for. That person often can suggest
a member who can provide you with the information you need—or may have it on
hand.

In
addition to governmental websites, which maintain statistics on a variety of
subjects, universities often have data and statistics you need. As with an
association, ask for the public affairs or media relations department and
request a referral to an appropriate faculty member to interview.

Don’t
overlook book authors who’ve written on the topic you’re covering. Check on Amazon for possible authors, Google their backgrounds, and make contact through
their publisher’s PR department. After you’ve identified your sources, contact
them to arrange your interviews.

Background
research is a necessary task for much of your work--just make sure you don’t
get bogged down with it. After all, you get paid for the words you actually
write, not for the time you spend researching. **This post was drawn from Secret 27: Find facts fast, from Writer for Hire: 101 Secrets to Freelance Success. Readers, what do you think? Do you have any time-slashing research techniques you'd like to share?